Hiroshima nuclear bombing

To be instantly killed by a nuclear bomb is probably the "best" death you can have if you worry about suffering. It's just a fraction of a second.. It's much worse to survive an attack and try to cope with life after such a massive destruction. One of the surviving women on this film says "I just kept thinking- Why?" And in the background you can see one of her house-idols.. Again, God allows things to happen for a reason. But the important thing is to be Catholic and in a state of grace when you die. It's really all that matters. There is no salvation outside the Church. We are also called to suffer for Christ, so don't expect to escape all pains just because you are a Catholic. But God will give us strength sufficient for each day, no matter what comes if we just continue to run the race.

Hymn to Saint Pius V, Pope and Confessor

(From the Raccolta, an indulgence of 300 days)
I have come to love this prayer, and I find strenght and hope in it. Just concider how Pope Pius V also lived in a time of Terror-stricken Christendom, how men despised the fear of God or how Turkey's countless navy yielded to the power of prayer!!
























Wars and tumults fill the earth;
Men the fear of God despise;
Retribution, vengeance, wrath,
Brood upon the angry skies.

Holy Pius, Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time-
Whom, of Saints in bliss, can we
better call to aid than thee?

None more mightily than thou
Hath, by holy deed or word,
Through the spacious earth below,
Spread the glory of the Lord.
Holy Pius...etc.

Thine it was, O Pontiff brave!
Pontiff of eternal Rome!
From barbaric yoke to save
Terror-stricken Christendom.
Holy Pius..etc.

When Lepanto's gulf beheld,
Strewn upon its waters fair,
Turkey's countless navy yield
To the power of thy prayer.
Holy Pius..etc.

Who meanwhile with prophet's eye,
Didst the distant battle see,
And announce to standers-by
That same moment's victory.
Holy Pius..etc.

Mightier now and glorified,
Hear the suppliant cry we pour;
Crush rebellions haughty pride:
Quell the din of rising war.
Holy Pius..etc.

At thy prayers may golden peace
Down to earth descend again;
License, discord, trouble cease;
Justice, truth and order reign.
Holy Pius...etc.

To the Lord of endless days,
One Almighty Trinity,
Sempiternal glory, praise,
Honor, might and blessing be. Amen.

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Prayer of Asa

2.Paral 14:10 And Asa went out to meet him, and set his army in array for battle in the vale of Sephata, which is near Maresa:
11 And he called upon the Lord God, and said: O Lord, there is no difference with Thee, whether Thou help with few, or with many: help us, O Lord our God: for with confidence in Thee, and in Thy Name, we are come against this multitude. O Lord Thou art our God, let not man prevail against Thee. 12 And the Lord terrified the Ethiopians before Asa and Juda: and the Ethiopians fled.

A prayer suited for today as well. For with God we can run against an army or leap over a wall. He makes our feet like the feet of deer! We may be few but it should not bring us down!

Uppsala attack on Jan Vilks

"Artist" Jan Vilks was attacked during an open lecture about free speach at Uppsala University in Sweden, where he showed a movie presenting the anti-prophet Muhammed as a naked, homosexual man. Vilks has been living with a prize on his head ever since his provocing drawings of Muhammed in 2007. Although it angers me to hear angry muslims cry out to their false god in public places, I can't help pondering upon their zealous attitude. How many times have not similar attacks of blasphemy been committed against the Lord Jesus Christ in the last few years, like that horrifying exhibition "Ecce Homo", also in Sweden, and noone say or do anything at all. I will leave you with this one thought: PRAYERS IN REPARATION FOR BLASPHEMIES!! Like "The Golden Arrow-prayer," or honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus or His Holy Face.

The false sedevacantists

A lot of the current information about the Catholic Church and the sedevacantist position comes from the english speaking world. I fully appreciate all the useful information published by different organizations and groups that are out there. To find Catholic litterature of the good, old kind in the Nordic languages is more or less an impossibility. After more than 400 years under protestant ruling, the traces of truth have been skillfully erased, books burned, historical facts altered etc. Nowadays we even have the imposter-sect the Novus Ordo to battle against, with all their "revised versions" of writings, sometimes revised into the unrecognizable.
But what both puzzles me and grieves me, as an outsider, not being a member of any organisation, not even having a Priest in the region or a Mass to go to.. is to observe the numerous kinds of strange attitudes and even heresies held within the sedevacantist community. (And by community I don't mean that I am in communion with heretics, since it is a fact that it only takes one heresy to fall outside of the Church.)The most frequent ones seem to be
1) That there is no salvation outside the Church, except..EXCEPT!!? People always have exceptions. Whether it is the unbaptized infants, the 12-year old protestant, the ignorant of good will who are following their own conscienses.. Why do people always think that God knows all minor things, all of our little problems and everyday battles, and then He, the Almighty God! should NOT KNOW about the much bigger and more important issue of .. weather or not people have heard the true gospel. Is God ignorant of the heathens? Does He depend upon man to share the truth with anyone? Did He not convert St. Paul on the way to Damascus? All humanbeings without exceptions are outside the Church AND outside salvation as long as they are not in unity with the Church in faith, having entered by water baptism. And they are guilty of sin and will be condemned, if not for not having heard, then for actual and original sin. Why is that so hard to grasp? And why do we have examples in Church history of the Saints raising the unbaptized from the dead in order for them to be baptized, if it was not absolutely necessary for them in order to enter Heaven?
2)The natural family planning heresy. Why do Catholics refuse God His right over their bodies for procreation? Do they not know that duty comes before pleasure? Do they not understand that marriage is a Sacrament and a calling to bring about little Christians, Godwilling? Do they not know that fleshly lust in itself is a sin, even within a marriage if the main-intention of the marriage act is deliberately avoided? And that chastity is a virtue?
3)The heresy that having a Mass to go to is more important than keeping the Faith.
We are not Catholics if we go to the Latin Mass, we are Catholics when we keep the Faith. You Commune with those that you believe and hope to share eternity with. In the Nordic region, even before the "Reformation" we read about Catholics who could not go to Mass for 7 years. And we don't have a Mass today. Does that make us less Catholic? Does that exclude us from the Church? Not at all. Compromising your Faith does.
4) The strange attitude that it is more important that you wear a neck-tie and a shirt to Church than that you prepare your heart before you enter. Why not strive to be better on the inside? Does God really care that much about outer appearance? He cares about MODESTY, yes, but a tie? Why not encourage people to drop by the Church during lunch-hours, after work, before school? If you have the privilege of having a Church around, why not strive to BE THERE as much as you can. Do you have to worry about "running home to get your tie and Jacket and nice shoes?" And the fashion is a modern invention, maybe even vanity for some people. As an outsider, longing to have a Church to go to, I grieve for you and your invented problems. Wear a tie if you want to, but don't judge a brother who wears sandals but who comes with a pure heart or at least a longing for a pure heart. Did not Jesus himself wear sandals? He even told his followers to only have ONE PAIR! Worry about how to get the gospel out to people and to your own children instead. Now, there's a challenge!

Novus Ordo

Islam

Muslims idol-worshipping outside the Norwegian government building in Oslo as a protest against some drawings of their anti-prophet Mohammed.

Alongside this youtube video, (which was obviously not produced by Catholics but still have a few ineresting points) there is also a longer movie called "What the West needs to know about Islam", that I would recommend people to watch. It's very interesting and exposes Islam as being an aggressive religion rather than a religion of peace. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-871902797772997781#

Volcano

Just a very interesting article about Volcanic activities in Iceland in 1783, and the effects that the eruption had on the rest of the world. From "the Economist."

http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10311405

The first Eucharist